


Music Is What Feelings Sound Like Out Loud

by Elise_Davidson



Series: 40 Snapshots [26]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: 23. iPod, 40 Snapshots, A Wondrous Place spoilers, But a lot of others are mentioned, Character analysis redux, Emma is pretty much the only character, Everyone from Mr. Gold to Regina to Archie to Ruby to Henry, F/M, Spoilers for season 6, no real plot, spoilers up to the most recent episode season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 08:39:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10553362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elise_Davidson/pseuds/Elise_Davidson
Summary: Season 6 spoilers up to the most recent episode, "A Wondrous Place".Emma thinks about how varied the tastes in music are in Storybrooke.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Notes: PLEASE READ THIS, THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR SEASON 6 UP TO THE MOST RECENT EPISODE.  
> Did you hear? SPOILERS. SPOILERS. THERE BE SPOILERS HERE.
> 
> There will be an inordinate amount of space between the notes and the story itself; I don’t want to accidentally spoil anything for someone, and the first sentence pretty much tells the end of the most recent episode, “A Wondrous Place”.
> 
> S
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> A
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> H
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> Ok, now that that’s out of the way. So, I just want to warn folks ahead of time, there’s very little plot to this. I really wanted to knock this particular prompt out, and while I originally had very different plans for it, it came out pretty much better than I wanted.
> 
> Title credit to Georgia Cates.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

XXXX

  1. iPod



Emma lay despondently on the bed after Killian’s call and Gideon’s little chat, wondering what, exactly, killing the Black Fairy would entail.  Naturally, she knew it had to be her light magic, seeing as Gideon had been hell-bent on stealing it.  Not to mention, so far as she could tell, Rumplestiltskin wanted his mother gone more than anyone, and, generally speaking, if he wanted you dead, well…

Emma sat up, rubbing her eyes irritably.  She knew she should really tell someone about Gideon’s visit, but she had the distinct impression that Gideon had gone to a lot of trouble to maintain a certain degree of secrecy about the whole thing.  God knew it wasn’t because he didn’t want his parents to find out; she doubted he cared much at all what they thought.  It did seem clear that he cared _about_ them though.

Still, if there was anyone in town who respected secrecy and might be able to give her some sound advice, it would be Regina.  Emma knew better than to think keeping it to herself was any kind of option worth considering.

Decided and ready, Emma snatched her keys off the nightstand before pausing.  Hook’s iPod sat next to the lamp and phone.  Henry had introduced it to him as a means of slowly acclimating Killian to other technologies.  No small amount of teasing could actually part Hook from it though, despite numerous people telling him that his cell phone would perform the exact same function.  Emma had always been curious as to what sort of music the residents of Storybrooke listened to, seeing as there was so much more variety here than in Fairytale Land.

The results had been boringly predictable, with few exceptions.  Mr. Gold, unsurprisingly, listened to the kind of classical music that could act as its _own_ sleeping curse, whereas Belle had a penchant for musicals, no matter how old or new.  Regina didn’t seem overtly picky about the genre so long as it had a piano, a violin, or both (though she did seem to enjoy covers done by piano and violin).  She also had insisted, in her words, that it “didn’t make her ears bleed”.

The pattern went as such—David liked country, Snow thought certain pop songs reminded her of court, and Ruby, before she had left, tended to listen to thrash metal that made Granny roll her eyes and Regina groan and remark upon the aforementioned bleeding of ears.

While it wasn’t terribly surprising that the dwarves all had different tastes, their selection by dwarf was endlessly amusing.  Though he would never admit it, Grumpy had a thing for love ballads, and denied it viciously (though a quick glance in his van always revealed something by Celine Dion or Adele).  Meanwhile, Happy had sworn by anything put out by the Beastie Boys or Limp Bizkit.  Dopey listened exclusively to Eminem, and though he never actually sang or rapped (or said anything really), he could be seen lip-syncing often and with varying degrees of success.  Doc often swapped pop songs with Snow, and while he readily listened to anything she offered, Snow had been known to wince and turn down a few of his.  Sleepy, to everyone’s disappointment, listened to nothing, because anything he had tried had put him to sleep.  Sneezy listened to books-on-tape, claiming that the natural cadence of someone speaking kept him from sneezing as much (it did not).  Bashful liked anything resembling jazz (even the freeform stuff that made his brothers grimace), and lastly, Tiny admitted there was something soothing about slow bluesy numbers.

Emma fiddled with Killian’s iPod, remembering how the fairies all had an affinity for this world’s religious music, regardless of the religion.  Apparently, or so one of the nuns had told her, it reminded them of some of the songs from home.  She had asked Blue once, long after the curse had been broken, why they even kept up the nun-and-convent pretense.  Everyone know who they really were after all, why bother?

The answer had been surprising.  Blue simply stated that they had always lived communally, and the piety they practiced here was not so very different than FTL.

Even Tinker Bell had grudgingly agreed when asked, though Emma also knew for a fact that Tinker Bell listened to hard punk whenever she could get away with it (and kept several items beneath the floorboards of her room in the convent that sometimes did or did not get loaned out to the other fairies).

Everyone in town definitely had preferences, from Archie (nature music, complete with waves and thunderstorm sound effects) to Gepetto (always something lilting and sad, like the strings were crying out the notes).  Emma suddenly realized that she had no idea what Killian really preferred, seeing as she and Henry often picked the music in the car (usually post-90’s grunge or rap).

She turned the small device on and began scrolling through the lists of songs that Henry had shown Killian how to search for and import to it.

Emma found herself somewhat startled by the sheer variety—there was a little bit of everything really, even Disney soundtracks (along with an unhealthy amount of punk-pop and screamo, though she supposed she shouldn’t really be surprised, given the guyliner).  She was crying again before she could stop it, hating the hot tears that streaked down her flushed cheeks.  If only she hadn’t cried at the stupid bar, if only Killian hadn’t thought his only option was to _run_.

If she had just been able to control her feelings tonight, maybe her superpower would have kicked in and she would have known it was never Aesop at _all_.

With a frustrated grunt into her hands, Emma tried to wonder what realm Hook had been stranded.  All she knew was that Gideon had wanted him gone, and he was, along with the Nautilus and its crew.

Lying back on the bed, she set the iPod to shuffle and curled under the blankets.  She couldn’t think straight like this, not with her emotions all muddied up and her focus obliterated.

Instead, Emma opted for a good cry in the dark of their room, muffled by pillows and the sound of Killian’s iPod blasting in her ears.

XXXXXXXXXX

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Notes: I had actually intended to go quite a bit further with this, but seeing as I have no idea where the show is going with this whole Black Fairy thing, I didn’t want to write something I might want to continue but doesn’t fit with the show’s continuity.
> 
> Honestly, I hardly ever write things that take place directly after an episode or within a current season. But this prompt was staring me in the face, and honest to god, it was mocking me because I’ve done this table a few times, and this particular prompt has always been difficult.
> 
> This was surprisingly easy and fun to get out. I’m bogged down with a few other heavier projects (plus work, blah) and I’m glad I got to do something fun and somewhat frivolous, considering the other things going on in the show.
> 
> And I feel like I should probably apologize for the lack of plot and the ridiculous amount of assigning music tastes to Storybrooke characters XD I’m a bit of a band/music geek (nothing obscure, to be honest; I just listen to a lot of different stuff) and once I got into it…it kind of ran off with itself.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
